The goal
Manufacturing to 25% of GDP, and 100 million jobs
When it started, manufacturing was about 16–17% of India's economy. The plan was to take it to 25% and create 10 crore industrial jobs, so that people leaving farming had somewhere to go.
Home / Make in India
Make in India
Launched on 25 September 2014 by the Narendra Modi government. The idea was simple: instead of importing almost everything, build things inside India, create factory jobs and sell to the world. Ten years later, what actually happened?
2014year it was launched
25%target share of manufacturing in GDP
~17%actual share in 2023-24 (same as 2014)
What exactly is it?
Not a single scheme — a bundle of policies meant to make India a manufacturing hub.
The method
Ease of doing business + open FDI
Rules were simplified and digitised, industrial licences were cut, and foreign investment limits were raised in defence, railways, construction, insurance and more. India's World Bank ease-of-doing-business rank went from 142 in 2014 to 63 in 2019 — the report itself was discontinued after that.
2020
Production Linked Incentive (PLI)
The big money came later: ₹1.97 lakh crore across 14 sectors — mobile phones, medicines, medical devices, cars, solar modules, batteries, textiles, drones and more. Companies got paid for producing more in India. It was later folded into the "Atmanirbhar Bharat" push.
What worked
Phones
India became the world's second-largest mobile phone maker
Smartphone production rose from about ₹2.14 lakh crore (FY2020) to ₹4.1 lakh crore (FY2024). Electronics output went from $37 billion in 2015-16 to $115 billion in 2023-24. Apple's suppliers set up plants, and exports of phones became one of India's fastest-growing export lines.
Scale
Cars, steel, medicines
India is now the world's third-largest automobile market and the second-largest crude steel producer. It remains the world's largest supplier of generic medicines — a strength that existed before 2014 and grew further.
Investment
Real manufacturing output doubled
In real terms, manufacturing value added roughly doubled in the ten years after 2014, driven by pharmaceuticals, metals and transport equipment. PLI alone drew ₹1.28 lakh crore of investment and ₹10.8 lakh crore of production by May 2024.
What is still pending
The big miss
Manufacturing share of GDP has not moved
It was about 17.3% in 2013-14 and about 17.3% in 2023-24. The 25% target has not been met. Exports as a share of GDP actually fell from 25.2% to 22.7% in the same period.
Jobs
Factory jobs did not arrive at the promised scale
The 10-crore-jobs goal is far from reached. PLI added roughly 8.5 lakh jobs by May 2024 — real, but a small fraction of what India needs each year. Manufacturing's share of total employment has actually slipped.
Assembly vs depth
We assemble more than we make
Much of the phone boom is assembly. Components — chips, displays, camera modules, batteries — are still largely imported, mostly from China. Until that changes, a phone "made in India" still carries a large import bill.
Execution
PLI money was slow to reach companies
By 2024, only about 4.9% of the ₹1.97 lakh crore outlay had actually been disbursed. Several sectors — textiles, IT hardware, solar modules, speciality steel — underperformed badly.
Chips
Semiconductors are only starting
India approved its first semiconductor fabrication plants in 2024, a decade after the programme began. A real chip ecosystem — fabs, design talent, water and power infrastructure — is still years away.
One clarification: "Made in India" on this website is a tag about origin and pride. "Make in India" is the government programme launched in 2014. They are related in spirit but they are not the same thing.
Sources:
Council on Foreign Relations — India's industrial policies ·
Hudson Institute — India's manufacturing is stagnant ·
The Hindu BusinessLine — Economic Survey on PLI ·
CNBC — What ails India's manufacturing